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SA striving to win battle of international perceptions
International perceptions about a country have an effect on foreign investment, investor confidence and even the social fibre of a country, says International Marketing Council (IMC) of South Africa marketing manager, Vuyelwa Nyakaza. Speaking at the recent launch of the IMC's Branding the Nation campaign and the launch of the book, Africa: The Good News, Nyakaza highlighted that being branded as a nation had much to do with how South Africa was perceived internationally.
“International perception can seriously affect investment in a country and that perception of a country can be shaped by political and social experience.
“Our vision 2020 is to be in the top 20 branded countries in the world. Currently we are sitting at about 32 or 33,” said Nyakaza, adding that the world has formed a perception of South Africa through international media and through interaction with our people.
She explained that six factors are considered when building an image of South Africa, namely tourism, investment, exports, people, culture and heritage and the government.
The council, she said, actively manages these six portfolios and tries to exploit the strengths of each of the six in order to communicate to the world the best attributes about South Africa.
Three communications pillars are being used to build the brand South Africa including a country of possibility, a country whose greatest asset is our diversity, and South Africa is a place where the spirit of Ubuntu (“humanity to others”) guides our people.
Some of the greatest challenges in branding the nation is poor awareness and familiarity with South Africa internationally, very low international “share of voice”, and poor alignment and synergy in how the country communicates about itself.
The benefits of greater alignment in how the country is marketed will be seen in greater message impact which will allow the country to maximise advertising spend as all marketing agencies will be saying the same thing, Nyakaza said.
“The focus will be to address messaging through a single communication strategy... the IMC works closely with the Department of Trade and Industry [dti] who have over 30 offices internationally, while the IMC has three internationally.
“We will be working closely in order to market South Africa with one voice,” she said.
CEO of South Africa: The Good News, Steuart Pennington, launching Africa: The Good News, which follows the success of his first book, South Africa: The Good News, said it was time to start focusing on the South Africa one wanted to build.
“We don't describe a future we see... we see a future we describe,” the CEO said, alluding to the fact that always being negative about the country will only lead to further negativity.
His first book sold 10 000 copies within four months, showing there is an interest in good news about the country and continent.
South Africa: The Good News website (www.sagoodnews.co.za), which was launched in 2004, is used in 185 countries worldwide and has 100 000 page impressions per month. The Africa: The Good News website will be launched in January 2009.
Article published courtesy of BuaNews
